Spain's Parliament Approves Election And Its Own Demise

Stunning Victory For Suarez
Vote by the Legislators, Holdovers From Franco Era, Is a Major Step Toward Democracy
Spanish Parliament Accepts Reform

By JAMES M. MARKHAM

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES

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Madrid, Nov. 18--Spain took a major step tonight toward elective democracy as the
largely appointed Parliament left by Franco approved general elections for next year and
voted itself out of existence.

The action, by a vote of 425 to 59, with 13 abstentions, must still be approved in a
referendum, possibly in the third week of December.

The vote, which came two days before the first anniversary of Franco's death, was a
stunning victory for Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez, the personal choice of King Juan
Carlos and the leader in the slow dismantlement of the dictatorial institutions of Franco
Spain. Many had predicted before the vote that it would be close.

The atmosphere in the ornate Parliament building after the milestone vote was one of
general jubilation, with many of the elderly stalwarts of the past crowding around the 44-
year-old Prime Minister to shake his hand or slap him on the back.

Prime Minister Grins

Mr. Suarez grinned a the representatives surged out of their high-backed red leather
chairs to congratulate him. Among those who stepped forward to greet him was Carlos
Arias Navarro, Franco's last Prime Minister, who was ousted by the King in June.

The first article of the reform bill marks a sharp break with the past: "Democracy in the
Spanish state, is based in the supremacy of the law and the sovereign will of the people."

The bill provides for the election of a 350-memebr Congress, or lower house. It also
provides for a less powerful Senate, 207 of whose members are to be elected by majority
vote. But a fifth of that total may be appointed by the King.

Mr. Suarez has promised that the elections will be held by June, but with the Spanish
economy in a fast worsening situation there is considerable pressure to hold them sooner.
The last free elections in Spain were held under the Second Republic in 1936, just before
the eruption of the civil war that brought France to power.

Voting Modified by Compromise

This morning, the mood in the heavily guarded Parliament was tense after right-wingers
in a new political party called Popular Alliance threatened widespread abstentions--
equivalent to negative votes--if the Government did not reject proportional voting for the
lower house.

The right-wing alliance believes that a majority voting system will give it an edge in the
elections scheduled for next spring. Cruz Martinez Esterualas, a former Franco
Education Minister, warned darkly that proportional representation was favored by
Communists.

A series of closed-door meetings between government ministers and figures from the
Popular Alliance resulted in a vaguely worded compromise that will slightly modify
proportional voting, which tends to favor small groups.

The modifications stipulate that measures will be taken "to avoid the excessive
fragmentation of the house," including minimum percentages that a party must have to
get its members elected. Also, each of Spain's 50 provinces is to have an unspecified
minimum of seats, regardless of population.

These concessions may give a slight edge to entrenched right-wingers in some provinces,
but the language adopted appears sufficiently loose to give the Government room for
maneuver when it actually spells out electoral law.

"It was a poker game and the Government won," said a Spanish journalist, counting the
large "si" vote from the press gallery. "Everyone who wants to play politics in the future
is voting yes."

The relative ease with which Mr. Suarez won his victory tonight underscored the rapid
disintegration of the extreme right of the Franco era.

The next step on his program is the holding of the referendum, and although some leftist
opposition parties have vowed to campaign against it, the Government, which controls
television and radio, seems certain of gaining a healthy majority.

Already there has been a growing trend within the so-called "democratic opposition,"
which runs from rightist Christian Democrats to the illegal Communist Party, to negotiate
the ground rules of the elections with the Government.

The main opposition groups have been trying to assemble a "committee of personalities"
that could discuss with Mr. Suarez such vital questions as the shape of the electoral law,
access to television and radio during the campaign, and freedom of assembly.